- \item Cinelerra must be installed on the master node and all client machines.
- \item It is best to have the same username available on all nodes to avoid problems with access rights.
- \item Check file permissions and ownership to ensure that the clients all have access.
- \item If a node does not have access to an input asset it will not die, but just display error messages.
- \item If a node can not access an output asset, the rendering will abort.
- \item A port in use when stopped may take up to $30$ seconds to time out before you can restart the jobs.
- \item Each of the port combinations have to be unique across clients, and not already in use in the network.
- \item Cinelerra load balances on a first come, first serve basis. If the last section of the video is sent to the
- slowest node, the render job will have to wait for the slowest node to finish. It would be better to
- start on the slowest node with the earlier section of the video so keep that in mind when designating
- port numbers.
- \item If not running as root, a port number in the higher range of $1024$ and above must be used instead of
- the $400+$ range.
- \item The master and client jobs on the ports do not go away so if you want to stop them, you will have to
- kill them via: \texttt{kill PID\#}.
- \item Check to see if there are services listening on the ports to use: \texttt{netstat -n -l -4 --protocol inet}
- \item There is a watchdog timer in Cinelerra and if there is no response from a client in the designated
- number of seconds, it will kill the render job.
- \item The \textit{localhost} should exist as $127.0.0.1$ in \texttt{/etc/hosts} and as the \texttt{lo} network device in ifconfig.
- \item If the job loads become unbalanced, you may want to \textit{reset rates} to start over for new framerates.
- \item If jobs are split in a key section on the timeline, you may wish to \textit{use labels} to prevent this.
- \item For testing purposes, you may want to start a client in the foreground using \texttt{-f} instead of \texttt{-d}.
- \item If one of the client computers is unavailable, check to see if there is an \texttt{X} to the left of the \texttt{nodename}
- in the Nodes listbox. Check the \texttt{X} to disable it which sets ON to OFF.
- \item A red message in the lower left hand corner of the main timeline that reads \textit{Failed to start render
- farm} often means that the client Cinelerra programs were not started up.
- \item A message of \texttt{RenderFarmWatchdog::run 1 killing server thread \\ \#address\#} means that the client did
- not respond in time. You can adjust the timer in \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$ Preferences, Performance} tab.
- \item When you get the message \texttt{RenderFarmClient::main\_loop: bind port 400: Address already in use}, use a different port.
- \item A message of \texttt{RenderFarmServerThread::open\_client: unknown host abcompany} means that the
- hostname of abcompany is not in \texttt{/etc/hosts} so you will have to add it or use the ip address instead.
- \item There are numerous error messages associated with file \textit{open/close/status} or problems with the file
- that should be dealt with according to what is printed out.
- \item Other illustrative messages may be shown such as: \texttt{RenderFarmClientThread:: run: Session finished}.
+\item \CGG{} must be installed on the master node and all client
+ machines.
+\item It is best to have the same username available on all nodes to
+ avoid problems with access rights.
+\item Check file permissions and ownership to ensure that the
+ clients all have access.
+\item If a node does not have access to an input asset it will not
+ die, but just display error messages.
+\item If a node can not access an output asset, the rendering will
+ abort.
+\item A port in use when stopped may take up to $30$ seconds to time
+ out before you can restart the jobs.
+\item Each of the port combinations have to be unique across
+ clients, and not already in use in the network.
+\item \CGG{} load balances on a first come, first serve basis. If
+ the last section of the video is sent to the slowest node, the
+ render job will have to wait for the slowest node to finish. It
+ would be better to start on the slowest node with the earlier
+ section of the video so keep that in mind when designating port
+ numbers.
+\item If not running as root, a port number in the higher range of
+ $1024$ and above must be used instead of the $400+$ range.
+\item The master and client jobs on the ports do not go away so if
+ you want to stop them, you will have to kill them via: \texttt{kill
+ PID\#}.
+\item Check to see if there are services listening on the ports to
+ use: \texttt{netstat -n -l -4 --protocol inet}
+\item There is a watchdog timer in \CGG{} and if there is no
+ response from a client in the designated number of seconds, it will
+ kill the render job.
+\item The \textit{localhost} should exist as $127.0.0.1$ in
+ \texttt{/etc/hosts} and as the \texttt{lo} network device in
+ ifconfig.
+\item If the job loads become unbalanced, you may want to
+ \textit{reset rates} to start over for new framerates.
+\item If jobs are split in a key section on the timeline, you may
+ wish to \textit{use labels} to prevent this.
+\item For testing purposes, you may want to start a client in the
+ foreground using \texttt{-f} instead of \texttt{-d}.
+\item If one of the client computers is unavailable, check to see if
+ there is an \texttt{X} to the left of the \texttt{nodename} in the
+ Nodes listbox. Check the \texttt{X} to disable it which sets ON to
+ OFF.
+\item A red message in the lower left hand corner of the main
+ timeline that reads \textit{Failed to start render farm} often means
+ that the client \CGG{} programs were not started up.
+\item A message of \texttt{RenderFarmWatchdog::run 1 killing server
+ thread \\ \#address\#} means that the client did not respond in
+ time. You can adjust the timer in \texttt{Settings $\rightarrow$
+ Preferences, Performance} tab.
+\item When you get the message \texttt{RenderFarmClient::main\_loop:
+ bind port 400: Address already in use}, use a different port.
+\item A message of \texttt{RenderFarmServerThread::open\_client:
+ unknown host abcompany} means that the hostname of abcompany is not
+ in \texttt{/etc/hosts} so you will have to add it or use the ip
+ address instead.
+\item There are numerous error messages associated with file
+ \textit{open/close/status} or problems with the file that should be
+ dealt with according to what is printed out.
+\item Other illustrative messages may be shown such as:
+ \texttt{RenderFarmClientThread:: run: Session finished}.
+\end{itemize}
+
+And here are a couple of more tips for making Render Farm specific
+for your setup.
+\begin{itemize}
+\item Because \textit{index files} speed up displaying the video you
+ may want to share these files with the clients on a shared
+ filesystem. More information on index files configuration is
+ outlined in~\ref{sub:index_file_section}.
+\item Or, one of the convenient features of \CGG{} is the
+ redirection of the path via \texttt{CIN\_CONFIG} as in:
+\begin{lstlisting}[style=sh]
+CIN_CONFIG="/<shared_file_pathname>/<filename_such_as_.bcast5>" cin
+\end{lstlisting} This means that you can make project related
+ configurations that do not impact the default \texttt{\$HOME}
+ config. You can either export your default \texttt{\$HOME} config
+ or the \texttt{CIN\_CONFIG} config to use on the render farm.